Choosing the Best Picnic Games for your fun outing, doesn’t have to be difficult. A picnic is much more than delicious food and snacks, it is an amazing way to gather together and spend some quality time doing some fun activities.
Entertaining activities are actually a huge part of any successful picnic.
Boredom can very quickly cut any picnic short, especially when there are children involved. Preparing games to keep everyone busy, having fun and out of trouble is one of the best ideas.
Water Balloon Spoon Race
A picnic is a fantastic time for some water balloon fun and games. Remember the fun egg and spoon relay races? This is a great take on that classic.
Using water balloons in place of eggs can actually be far more difficult because they are harder to balance than an egg. Just make sure you clean up after yourselves. Don’t leave fragments of balloons around for wildlife to get.
Sponge Race Relay
You will need two large sponges, two buckets of water, two jars and two energetic teams. Mark a spot on the jars that will indicate that they are full and have each player dip the sponge into the bucket of water.
Once their sponges have been submerged in water, run to the jar and squeeze the sponge into the jar, running back to hand the sponge to the next team mate in line. The first team that has filled their jar wins!
Picnic Basket Race
Want some help cleaning up after the picnic? Make it fun with a picnic basket relay race. For this game you will need two picnic baskets, utensils, blankets etc.
The objective of the game is to have each player put everything back in the picnic basket first. The team with the first properly packed picnic basket wins.
Water Balloon Dodgeball
Who doesn’t love a fun game of dodgeball? Using water balloons makes it even more fun. Instead of dodging playground balls, the players will dodge water balloons and getting hit can be a refreshing way to lose.
Ring Toss
Ring toss is a picnic classic and so much fun. You can buy inexpensive ring toss games from your closest discount store.
Place the stakes in the ground, create teams and have people take turns trying to get the ring onto the stake. The first team to get all the rings on, wins.
Conventional Lawn Games
Don’t forget Bocce, Crochet, Badminton, Horseshoes, and Outdoor Bowling to name a few of the Best Picnic Games. All of these are inexpensive and can be picked up at many big box stores over the summer months.
Make up teams or play individually, it is all fun and keeps everyone busy and entertained.
Outdoor Sports
Always remember to bring some outdoor items to play with while on your picnic. Things like a volleyball, soccer ball, frisbee or even a kite can provide hours of entertainment. Arrange a game of volleyball or soccer, the winning team gets to relax while the losing team cleans up the picnic.
Picnics are so much fun and a great way to celebrate the nice weather. While the food and drinks are an important part of any picnic, so are the activities. Don’t forget to arrange some fun stuff to do while you enjoy the great outdoors.
50 Picnic Basket Essentials
And to load up that picnic basket we have 50 Picnic Basket Essentials for you!! Delicious ideas that everyone will love. Now you are all set to enjoy the summer to the fullest!!
Comments & Reviews
Jackie Cookj says
Plate Pass is a fun game. Two teams, first person passes paper plate, held between knees, second person takes plate between knees, and so on. First team to get plate to end of line wins.
Tara Noland says
That does sound like fun, thanks for adding it to the list!!
Wolfe Stew says
The sponge relay and picnic basket relay are games we’ll have to unpack at our next picnic. I especially enjoy that the picnic basket relay adds the bonus of getting your littles to clean up for you while having fun. We’ll have to see if ours will object strictly on principle (we’re not cleaning for you!) or play along because it’s a game. We’re sharing these wonderful ideas with our readers for International Picnic Day on June 18th. Thank you for compiling this list and, as a result, adding joy to the world.
Tara Noland says
I hope you and the kids enjoy them, Happy Picnicking!!
Eliza Ballot says
Such a great informative blog related to new games. I love to play games like ultimate frisbee, disc golf, cornhole game, Washers game as these games do not require much physical strength and some of the best games to play with family & friends. Also, the best part is, it does not require many accessories and easy to bring them anywhere.
Rest, a great blog and keep sharing such information.
Tara Noland says
Thanks for the great comment and to add in some more ideas. I didn’t know the Washers game, you could build your own too!
Emily Scott says
Very well written. I really like what you have shared, reminds me of my corporate picnic where I had to arrange everything on my own. Thank God I hired Bay Area Picnic Planners who took the charge and arranged a spectacular picnic which people still remember as the best picnic ever.
Anny Andrews says
Sack race, and three legged races are also fun ideas for picnics!
Tara Noland says
They sure are when you are little, tons of laughs!!
Heather says
I love all the water balloon games 🙂 Especially for the really hot days we’ve been having this summer!
Toni | Boulder Locavore says
These are really fun ideas for picnic! Saving this list!
Sarah says
The picnic games look so fun! I love having water balloon fights with the kids, those are the best!
Rachel says
I haven’t played a sponge race in a long time. It is so fun. I am going to have to get it up and going with my kids.
Claudia Krusch says
Water balloons are our backyard favorite! Loved your list!
krystal says
The spoon race is a classic. I love good family field day type games! We love to do a parachute with balls on top!
Emily says
I love these ideas! We’ve never tried the water balloon and spoon race. We also like to add in corn hole and a giant jingo!
valmg @ Mom Knows It All says
Those are all great ideas for outdoor play amongst a group. They remind me of big get-togethers we used to have at my sister-in-laws during the summer and we’d play games on the lawn.
Liz Mays says
Good ideas! I need to start gathering a few games that we can bring out whenever we’re grilling or having friends over. Horseshoes might be good!